Christmas Eve through Boxing Day

La Chata Restaurant is worth the flights here! What a delicious meal we enjoyed for Christmas Eve~ Carne Asado, frijoles, arroz, guacamole… We spent the night at Hotel Regis where we had stayed on our previous trip to Guadalajara before our week in Ajijic & Puerta Vallarata with Shana Jan.

The hostel I had lined up didn’t work out well; the room was barely larger than the double bed. The manager was very nice to watch our bags while we set off to find a more suitable room at an inn. I was able to find Hotel Regis right off and while it wasn’t anywhere fancy it is central with large rooms. In the morning I got online and booked a super deluxe room on Hotwire. I was gambling for the Hotel Moreles where we had stayed with Shana three years ago (another Hotwire find).

While it was a short walk to our new digs, the streets were completely empty. The tradition here is to have Christmas Eve dinner very late, midnight, and then stay up until morning light. No one was up and about but us! There was no place open for breakfast, luckily our Hotel, Casino Plaza, had a lovely restaurant where we enjoyed a bite after settling into our room.

We spent Christmas morning walking around the colonial center of Guadalajara. In one of the four plazas on each side of the huge cathedral, a temporary ice skating rink had been constructed. It was fun to watch the Mexican families attempt to ice skate. The gloveless ‘skaters’ went several times around the rink without letting go of the railing on the sides. Braver, more experienced skaters ventured into the center. Every hour the rink was emptied out and new skaters tried their luck & skill.

Since day bus rides are a tradition with us we boarded a city bus for the fun of it! Our destination was close so we decided to make a day of it and ride the bus as far out as it went. Guadalajara is 100 square miles, over 5 million people; I’m not sure where we ended up, but it was a different, very dusty world.

On our return trip we stopped off at a most beautiful church full of stained glass windows. We walked around the neighborhood waiting for mass to end so that we could venture inside. A procession was being organized and we were invited to join the hundreds of parishes represented by flags, but we decided to walk back to the center to find dinner.

The biggest adventure of the day was the fact that our credit cards were not working and we were unable to get any pesos! We first encountered the problem at the airport but we had some dollars to exchange. But on Christmas Day there were no banks or any currency changing shops open so we were down to less than 100 pesos for the day, right around $8.00. One ‘funny money machine’ stole my card so then we were really out of luck! With very few restaurants open because of the holiday, and even fewer that take credit cards for payment, we were forced to eat at Sanborns. This chain of high-end department stores is a Mexican tradition. It is a pricey Denny’s located in Macy’s. But we did have a nice Christmas dinner and happened to meet a friendly family with whom we had a chance to speak Spanish and discuss the political problems with the U.S.A.

We woke early this morning with a single task in mind, get money!! The bank returned our credit card but told us that the only way we could get pesos in the city was by using an automatic cash machine, which wasn’t working. Thank goodness for Skype. I was able to call Tyson, my man at Jordan Credit Union. I had his name & number saved on Skype from our time in Argentina when all the credit cards went missing. He did some work on his end, and after trying a couple of different machines we found a winner! Hopefully, we won’t have issues again. It’s an uncomfortable feeling having no money in a foreign country. At least we know we have resources in the states that would pull together and wire $$$ if we got in a really tough situation, though how & how long it would take is a problem I’d love to avoid!

Today’s change of scenery required a three-hour bus ride out of the city high up into the mountains. We are now at 6,850 feet above sea level in a most delightful small town. There are pine forests and a lake here, it’s a bit chilly tonight but we have the clothing, and each other, to keep warm.

We have been invited to go with the young woman who was tending the hotel, Meson Luna Sacra, on a tour of the area tomorrow. She was very kind to ask us out and we are looking forward to a full day here, it’s lovely, quiet & the air is fresh!